CABLE FIRM RESURRECTS BUDGET DEAL

Bowing to community pressure, the cable television provider for five northwest suburbs has promised that it will again offer a budget $9.95-a-month service in June.

The Lifeline service, intended for financially pressed households, would replace a similar service phased out on March 1 by Continental Cablevision.

It would be offered in the five member communities of the Continental Regional Cable Group. The group represents 170,000 residents and nearly 38,000 cable TV subscribers in Buffalo Grove, Elk Grove Village, Hoffman Estates, Palatine and Rolling Meadows.

The decision to bring back the budget service ''very definitely is a response to the expression of interest in making a Lifeline tie-in available to the community,'' said John Hartinger, program director in Continental Cablevision`s Rolling Meadows office.

The new budget package would charge the same price as its predecessor but would carry 19 channels, down from the 24 offered previously.

To keep programming affordable, Cablevision plans to drop such extra-cost services as Cable News Network (CNN) and the ESPN sports network from the Lifeline package. Two satellite superstations, New York`s WOR and Atlanta`s WTBS, will be available instead. The service also will carry local television stations and community-service channels, including that of Harper College.

Hartinger said Continental Cablevision originally expected that it might take two years to reconfigure its system to deliver the reduced number of channels, but it has since determined that the job will take just three months.

''I`m happy they`re doing that,'' said William D. McLeod, chaiman of the Continental Regional Cable Group and a Hoffman Estates trustee. ''It won`t have as many services as the 24-channel tier did, but with the addition of the two superstations, that`s a lot of programming, and it will give people a lot of options.''

In March, the five-town consortium accused Continental of ''rate blackmail.''